Ketoprak

This pandemic quarantine gives me all the time in the world to re-make my fav snacks and unlimited access to the kitchen, so this wfh thing doesn't really work for me. I end up making snacks with whatever we have in the kitchen. If the pandemic doesn't get me, obesity sure will. Help!

Today I decided to make ketoprak, tofu salad with peanut butter dressing, pandemic version. Meaning, it's a shortcut version due to  laziness the limited ingredients. You can find the full version here.

Like Gado-gado, Ketoprak is an Indonesian salad with peanut sauce dressing. Compare to Gado-gado, Ketoprak has garlic-y peanut dressing and it also has fewer vegetables in it. In fact, the basic ingredients of ketoprak are tofu, beansprout, vermicelli, and the dressing itself. 

Okay, let's take a look at the ingredients we need to make it. I don't use any fix measurement tho, it's all goes by as-my-heart-content. It's anyway a shortcut version of the real thing, but worry not, the taste is exactly the same, guaranteed! 

Ingredients for the salad: 

Vermicelli, blanched, drained, set aside

Beansprout, blanched, drained, set aside

Cucumber, diced,

Eggs, boiled, cut into quarters

Tofu, diced and fried

Kerupuk, I used storebought vegetables chips

Ingredients for the dressing: 

2 tbsp peanut butter, I used Kraft brand, natural

1 garlic, fried until lightly golden brown

1 Thai chilli

2 kaffir lime leaves, torn 

Salt

Ketchap manis or gula jawa (Indonesian palm sugar)

1 cup of boiling hot water

Preparing the sauce:

1. Using mortar pestle, crush the garlic and thai chili (and gula jawa, if you use any) into paste, 
2. In a bowl, add peanut butter, the garlic and chili mix, torn kaffir lime leaves, mix,
3. Add water, one table spoon at a time until you reach the consistency you like while continue mixing,
4. Add salt and ketjap manis, mix well.

Assemble the salad: 

1. Plate vermicelli, beansprout, cucumber, fried toffu, and eggs
2. Drizzle the peanut sauce, 
3. Top it with Kerupuk, and serve.

See, it is that easy! 

PS: Although nothing beats the real peanut butter sauce made from freshly fried peanuts, I have been using peanut butter as a lazy shortcut. I just make sure to use the one that has no sugar added. 

PPS: I crushed the kaffir lime leaves with mortar pestle to get the flavor out